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GOP Votes to Fully Repeal Obamacare, No Help From Democrats

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The GOP-House voted Tuesday evening to fully repeal Obamacare, sending the bill to a Republican Senate that seems likely to at least try to pass it in the coming weeks.

There was little doubt the bill could pass in a House with a stronger Republican majority, and it passed easily 239-186.

Republicans have held full Obamacare repeal votes in every session of Congress, and have won the support of just a few Democrats. This time around, no Democrats voted with Republicans, and three Republicans voted against the bill: Reps. Bob Dold (Ill.), John Katko (N.Y.), and Bruce Poliquin (Maine).

The debate and vote gave both parties a chance to run through their usual arguments for and against the law. Republicans said said the law is leading to higher healthcare costs and less choice for Americans who have seen many of their insurance plans canceled because they don’t meet new standards under the law.

Republicans also said a repeal is needed so Congress can start over and build a new reform plan that gives people more choice. (Read more about the vote to repeal Obamacare HERE)

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Millions to Owe Hundreds of Dollars in Obamacare Tax Penalties This Year

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Photo Credit: NewscomSome 3 million to 6 million Americans will have to pay an Obamacare tax penalty for not having health insurance last year, Treasury officials said Wednesday. It’s the first time they have given estimates for how many people will be subject to a fine.

The penalty is $95, or 1% of income above a certain threshold (roughly $20,000 for a couple). So you could end up owing the IRS a lot of money.

Take a married couple with $100,000 in income – their bill comes to $797, according to the Tax Policy Center ACA penalty calculator.

The penalty for remaining uninsured rises to the larger of $325 or 2% of income in 2015.

As millions of Americans sit down in coming weeks to compile their tax returns, they’ll have to contend with Obamacare’s health insurance mandate for the first time. (Read more about the Obamacare tax penalty HERE)

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President Vows to ‘Protect Abortion’

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By Charlie Spiering. In a statement recognizing the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, President Obama vowed to protect the right to abortion in America — even as thousands of pro-life activists marched in Washington D.C. to protest the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I am deeply committed to protecting this core constitutional right,” he said, criticizing Republicans for passing a bill earlier today in the House to block taxpayer funding for abortions.

Obama asserted that the bill would “intrude on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care,” and his administration issued a veto threat of the bill. (Read more about the vow to protect abortion HERE)

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House Passes Bill to Block Abortions from Obamacare

By Sean Lengell and Paige Winfield Cunningham. The House on Thursday passed legislation along partisan lines that would block abortion coverage from plans offered by the federal government’s healthcare.gov, one day after Republican leaders pulled a stricter anti-abortion measure from the floor.

Republicans initially had planned to hold a vote on a measure that called for banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, the same day as the annual March for Life attended by thousands of anti-abortion activists. But leadership pulled it after a number of female Republican lawmakers incited a last-minute revolt against one part of the measure.

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which passed 242-179, was identical to a bill that cleared the Republican-run House last year but died in the then-Democratic controlled Senate. Only three Democrats supported the measure, with Rep. Richard Hanna of Indiana the lone Republican to reject it. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Domino’s Pizza to Obamacare: Fed’s Calorie Rule is a Disaster

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Photo Credit: Free Beacon
The final Obamacare regulation forcing restaurant chains to display calorie information is causing headaches for companies who say it is “impossible to comply” with the new rule.

Domino’s Pizza, one of the regulation’s most outspoken critics, said the rule from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is vaguely written and carries the possibility of jail time.

“Essentially we think this rule is a kind of disaster for everybody,” Lynn Liddle, executive vice president of Domino’s, told the Washington Free Beacon. “Not just pizza but restaurants, and anybody that’s going to fall within this law. It’s still not workable.”

One problem, Liddle said, is that the final rule broadly expanded the definition of what qualifies as a “menu.” Under the rule “menu” can refer to any writing that “used by a customer to make an order selection at the time the customer is viewing the writing,” which could apply to advertisements.

“We no longer know what a menu is,” Liddle said. “It’s really hard to interpret. Essentially they’re saying anything that a consumer can look at and make a potential ordering decision from is a menu.” She said this could apply to flyers, ads in the newspapers, or signs in the window. (Read more on how the calorie rule is unworkable HERE)

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Obamacare Exchanges Have Decreased Competition Among Insurers

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By Alyene Senger. Unsurprisingly, Obamacare has made yet another problem worse—creating a government exchange that is less competitive than the prior individual market.

In 2009, when President Obama was trying to sell his health care reform ideas to Congress, he promised a competitive marketplace, where costs would decrease and quality would increase. He said:

We’ll…[create] a new insurance exchange — a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them compete for millions of new customers. As one big group, these customers will have greater leverage to bargain with the insurance companies for better prices and quality coverage.

But thus far, much like his other promises, this one falls flat on all fronts. (Read more on what the Obamacare exchanges have done HERE)

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Top Obamacare Official Steps Down

By Sarah Ferris. Tavenner is leaving after five turbulent years overseeing the agency. Her tenure included the disastrous rollout of the government’s HealthCare.gov website as well as, most recently, an inflated tally of total ObamaCare enrollment.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee last month grilled Tavenner about the miscount, which had helped push the first-year enrollment total for ObamaCare past 7 million — a milestone that was celebrated by the administration at the time.

Tavenner said some figures were “inadvertently” double-counted, an explanation that was greeted with deep skepticism from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose staff identified the error.

“Tavenner had to go,” Issa wrote Friday in a statement provided first to The Hill.

“She presided over HHS as it deceptively padded the Obamacare enrollment numbers. It was a deplorable example of an agency trying to scam the American people. They weren’t successful this time because of Congressional oversight. We deserve better.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Need Help With Your New Obamacare Tax Return? IRS Won’t be There to Help

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Filing a federal tax return is about to get more complicated for millions of families because of President Barack Obama’s health law. But they shouldn’t expect much help from the Internal Revenue Service.

Got a question for the IRS? Good luck reaching someone by phone. The tax agency says only half of the 100 million people expected to call this year will be able to reach a person.

Callers who do get through may have to wait on hold for 30 minutes or more to talk to someone who will answer only the simplest questions.

“Taxpayers who need help are not getting it, and tax compliance is likely to suffer over the longer term if these problems are not quickly and decisively addressed,” said a report Wednesday by agency watchdog Nina E. Olson.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says budget cuts are forcing the agency to reduce taxpayer services and other functions. The number of audits will decline, technology upgrades will be delayed and the agency might be forced to shut down and furlough workers for two days later this year, Koskinen said. (Read more about how the IRS won’t be able to help with your Obamacare tax return HERE)

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Obamacare Expert Rips Obama Admin, Valerie Jarret for ‘Incompetence’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller By Al Weaver. In an interview with NPR, Steven Brill, author of “America’s Bitter Pill,” slammed the White House for its Obamacare launch, saying there has “never been a group of people who more incompetently launched something.”

Brill’s premiere Obamacare critique, as he tells host Terry Gross, is that the health care overhaul is “emblematic of what’s eating away at our country,” pointing directly to the politics and the “challenge of governance” it presents. Brill also told NPR that President Obama was largely protected by the likes of Valerie Jarrett, and had no idea of the issues until they ultimately reared their head. (Read more about what the Obamacare expert said HERE)

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House Approves Obamacare Bill Despite Veto Threat

By Fox News. The House voted Thursday to curb a provision in ObamaCare that some lawmakers say is hurting the job market, as the new Republican-controlled Congress moved quickly to challenge the administration on several fronts.

The House voted 252-172 for the ObamaCare bill, which tweaks the law’s definition of full-time workers who must be offered employer-provided health care. Twelve Democrats sided with Republicans in approving the first Affordable Care Act-related legislation of the new Congress.

The bill changes the full-time worker threshold from 30 hours weekly to a 40-hour minimum. Critics claim defining full-time employees as those working at least 30 hours is pressuring firms to save money by cutting workers’ hours below that and, in turn, the number of full-time jobs.

The White House, though, already has vowed to veto the bill, drawing jeers from GOP leaders. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Medicaid Payment Crisis Highlights Major Flaws in Obamacare

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By Jennifer Popik. The Medicaid program, which provides insurance coverage for lower income Americans, has expanded under the Obama Health Care law and now covers over one-fifth of Americans. Yet it is now set to face big cuts in the new year . . .

The Obama Health Care law (Obamacare) contains a self-contradictory approach to both increase the number of Americans with health insurance, but also to limit the amount of money allowed to be spent on health care . . .

To increase coverage, one approach the Administration used was initially to funnel large amounts of money into state Medicaid programs so that states could expand who they covered–but then cut back on the funds . . .

According to the Pear article, “The impact will vary by state, but a study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that doctors who have been receiving the enhanced payments will see their fees for primary care cut by 43 percent, on average.” (Read more about the major flaws in Obamacare HERE)

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Obamacare Architects Furious Over Not Being Exempt from Obamacare

By Tyler Durden. The brain incubator at Harvard, the place which according to legend, and certainly the US News and World Report’s annual paid college infomercial, is the repository for some of the smartest people in the world, is furious.

The reason – Harvard’s illustrious faculty has learned that they too will be subject to their own policy recommendations as relates to Obamacare, which they themselves helped conceive. As the left-leaning NYT reported earlier today, “for years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.”

Because Harvard’s brilliant ivory tower economists and public policy wonks know precisely how to fix the world… as long as said fix never applies to them.

And sure enough, the faculty did everything in its power to make sure it never had to suffer the consequences of its own brilliance… (Read more from this story HERE)

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Half of Obamacare Subsidy Recipients Owe the IRS

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Photo Credit: (AP / Susan WalshBy Justin Green. As many as 3.4 million people who received Obamacare subsidies may owe refunds to the federal government, according to an estimate by a tax preparation firm.

H&R Block is estimating that as many as half of the 6.8 million people who received insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act benefited from subsidies that were too large, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“The ACA is going to result in more confusion for existing clients, and many taxpayers may well be very disappointed by getting less money and possibly even owing money,” the president of a tax preparation and education school told the Journal. (Read more about the Obamacare subsidy recipients HERE)

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Feds Looking for Company to Run its Obamacare Computers

By Jeryl Bier. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking for vendors to run its “National Data Warehouse,” a database for “capturing, aggregating, and analyzing information” related to beneficiary and customer experiences with Medicare and the federal Obamacare marketplaces. Although the database primarily consists of quality control metrics related to individuals’ interactions with customer service, potential contractors are to “[d]emonstrate … experience with scalability and security in protecting data and information with customer, person-sensitive information including Personal Health Information and Personally Identifiable information (personal health records, etc.).” Vendors are also instructed that one of the requirements of a possible future contract would be “[e]nsuring that all products developed and delivered adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance standards.”

For a number of years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the division of HHS responsible for Medicare and now Obamacare also, has maintained a “national data warehouse” (NDW) related to the 1-800-MEDICARE helpline. The passage of the Affordable Care Act and subsequent establishment of the Marketplaces has expanded the scope of the NDW. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obamacare’s Horrible Year

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By Michelle Mankin. There’s no candy coating the truth: Obamacare has had a very terrible, horrible, crappy, none-too-happy year. What it really means is that the victims of Obamacare — taxpayers, health care consumers, health care providers, employers and employees — have had a hellish, nightmarish 2014.

Let’s start with premiums. President Candy Land promised that he’d “lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” But premiums for people in the individual market for health insurance have spiked over the last year. In fact, Forbes health policy journalist Avik Roy and the Manhattan Institute analyzed 3,137 counties and found that individual market premiums rose an average of 49 percent.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services itself admitted this month that average premiums will rise at least five percent for the lowest-cost plans offered by federal Obamacare health care exchanges. Democrats’ reaction? Obamacare rate shock doesn’t matter … because government is redistributing the burden and taxpayers are footing the bill! HHS crowed this week that nearly 90 percent of exchange enrollees received public subsidies in order to pay their premiums. (Read more about Obamacare’s horrible year HERE)

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Minnesota Companies Score Obamacare Exemptions

By Tom Steward. Do you believe in miracles? Ask Greg Hall, whose company supplied technology and know-how that helped rescue 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months in 2010.

Almost as miraculous, Hall’s American Manufacturing Company just received a permanent federal exemption from provisions of the Affordable Care Act that contradict the Catholic deacon and businessman’s religious convictions.

“I’m very happy. Obviously, it was not a battle we wanted to join, but we felt we had to and so we did,” said Hall about his St. Joseph company. “We’re pleased that we’re able to continue to offer our employees medical insurance without the areas that violated our Catholic conscience.”

Christmas came early for seven Minnesota business owners, once faced with the dilemma of violating their religious convictions or paying massive fines to the Internal Revenue Service. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Obamacare Employer Mandate Takes Effect Today

By Rick Moran. The Obamacare employer mandate that requires companies with more than 100 employees to offer insurance coverage to 70% of them goes into effect January 1, 2015. Those companies with between 50 and 100 employees will be forced to offer coverage next year.

The employer mandate was delayed a year for political reasons. Employers are not expected to have a problem covering employees, but the reporting requirements to the IRS are a nightmare. . .

Massive confusion is likely this tax season as employers and individuals alike will struggle with new forms and new requirements. This will be a boon to tax prep firms like H&R Block, who have been advertising their expertise in Obamacare compliance. (Read more from this story HERE)

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